Casting update: Adrien Brody in The Darjeeling Limited.

adrien brody darjeeling limitedOwen Wilson has dropped Adrien Brody’s name, playing Owen’s brother, into the cast list of Wes Anderson’s upcoming film set in India, The Darjeeling Limited, along with confirming Jason Schwartzman as the other brother. In an interview with Australian newspaper The Herald Sun, Owen revealed this:

What are you doing next?

I think I’m working on a movie about these kids who are getting bullied and they hire me as a bodyguard. Then there’s a movie I’m going to do with Wes in India, that Wes wrote and is directing. It’s about three brothers — with me, Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody.

But it’s not a Bollywood movie?

No. It’s going to be wild. Wes assures me it’s great, and I kind of believe him because I think of myself as more likely to go some place where I’d be roughing it before Wes. He likes staying in five-star hotels, and nice things.

So Owen appears to be the answer man for all things Darjeeling, as he was the first to mention its existence a few weeks ago. Maybe if someone takes him out for a couple of beers, maybe a night out to the Steely Dan concert, he’ll let you read the script.

From The Herald Sun: Owen Wilson, The Hard-working Slacker.

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Posted by Ted Zee on August 04th 2006 | 2 Comments

By Way of Introduction

A new reader might ask, “So what, or who, is this bigscreenlittlescreen.net anyways?” We’re hunter-gatherers really, decidedly pop, out of Seattle. We’re digging up trifles on film and television, sometimes providing precocious prerogatives on people like Project Runway’s Malan Breton, previewing upcoming projects from Christopher Guest, Michel Gondry, or Sofia Copolla, and getting overexcited about shows like Weeds, Michael C. Hall’s Dexter, and other new projects from the creators of Six Feet Under and Deadwood. Maybe someday when we’re not getting all tight in the pants over Johnny Drama and Miranda July, or asking what the deal is with Oliver Stone, we’ll type up those dissertations on why Tsai Ming-Liang’s What time is it there? trilogy is the greatest love story of our time, and how fart jokes are only funny if you’re Yasujiro Ozu.

So ten weeks into this thing, we’re just enjoying the ride, putting out feelers for contributions (maybe contributors) in the way of newsy tips, and looking for friends. So click around, check out some half-truths about us, or contact us if you feel compelled. And you know, maybe if you’re not busy sometime, we could like, see each other again.

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Posted by Ted Zee on August 04th 2006 | 0 Comments

Wes Anderson's New Film: The Darjeeling Limited.

wes anderson's new movieAs an update to news we’ve covered earlier, we’re now able to discuss Wes Anderson’s next film (besides the in-limbo stop-motion animated The Fantastic Mr. Fox) by name: The Darjeeling Limited. Besides titling the previously untitled, Production Weekly has the scriptwriting line-up, consisting of Anderson, Roman (son of the celebrated, brother of the scrutinized) Coppola, as well as Rushmore star/BSLS whipping boy Jason Schwartzman. Owen Wilson will play one of three brothers on a journey through India. Production is slated to start in December. Update 8/4: Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman have been confirmed, by Owen, as playing his brothers in the film.

But what of Noah Baumbach, who took the reins as Wes’s writing partner after Owen put all of his money on acting? After the fair to middling reception for The Life Aquatic, the two sat down together to write the screenplay for Mr. Fox., but there’s no word at this time about any involvement in Darjeeling. Baumbach’s directorial follow-up to The Squid and the Whale, what we’ll refer to as “The Untitled Noah Baumbach Project“, is in post-production. The film stars John Turturro, Nicole Kidman, Jack Black, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Wes Anderson photo from Cine.se

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Posted by Ted Zee on August 02nd 2006 | 42 Comments

Sorkin's "Studio 60" Pilot Leaked Online, YouTubed

studio 60 on the sunset strip aaron sorkinHaving left The West Wing in 2003 after the conclusion of it’s fourth season, Aaron Sorkin’s had some time on his hands to ruminate on the perils of television. The creator/writer of West Wing and the short lived Sports Night now reenters the fold, guns blazing with his new series on the fall premiere docket for NBC: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Six minutes into the pilot episode, via a Network-y Judd Hirsch on-air tirade, Sorkin takes Fear Factor, The Apprentice, network coverage of Iraq, and the rest of the Tube to task. And now, the 30 thousand foot look at an SNL type comedy show, (not to be confused with that other series of a similar premise, Tina Fey’s 30 Rock) starring Bradley Whitford, Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, and Stephen Weber has been leaked to online sites, including the omnipresent YouTube.

Update 9/11: Removed the YouTube video, as it kept getting yanked. The Good News: AOL has the “official” online release right here. (Sorry, AOL pulled the pilot from their site as well). The pilot is also available for rental from Netflix. (Again, gone.)
Thanks to The Sunset Strip for the tip.

More: Studio 60 Live Blog: Tim Goodman

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Posted by Ted Zee on August 02nd 2006 | 2 Comments

Review: World Trade Center

world trade center oliver stone
World Trade Center: Not Your Average
Politically-Charged Oliver Stone Rant

In contrast to the previously released film United 93, which took the hijackers’ perspective inside one of three planes that went down on September 11, 2001, Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center tells the story of New York City Port Authority officers, Chief John McLoughlin (played by the always angsty Nic Cage) and rookie Will Jimeno (the sublime Michael Pena), who find themselves trapped beneath the rubble between the disintegrated Towers. Only two of twenty survivors found amongst the ruins, Cage and Pena act for most of the film on their backs, covered in chalky concrete and screaming to be heard.

The force of the film is the structural collapse of the buildings, viewed from within, which must have been incredible to capture and to pull off. The effect is extremely claustrophobic as a theater-going experience, akin to an EST retreat. Alert: NO ONE who was in New York on 9-11 or lost someone in the attacks should make themselves go through all that again. Stone is not known for being an emotionally sensitive creature, and his agenda usually is to cram a slanted ideology down his audience’s throat. He’s your go-to man for drug-addled epics (Natural Born Killers), political conspiracies (The People Vs. Larry Flynt, JFK), and testosterone-driven power struggles (Platoon, Wall Street) so vile even a professional athlete couldn’t choke them down. As trite as that’s become, it is sorely lacking in WTC, which attempts to balance the agonizing visuals of men clinging to life by presenting their families’ reactions as they watch the coverage on television. The typically riveting Maria Bello does little with her role except give an icy blue stare of regret, while Maggie Gyllenhaal (as Jimeno’s pregnant wife) can only be said to NOT play Maggie Gyllenhaal this time, as per her often vain attempts to become the gesturally-awkward Meg Ryan of her generation.

Stone can’t stop himself from adding those signature touches. A subplot involving a fanatical Christian marine on a pilgrimage to drag bodies out of the chaos and a psychedelic Jesus blinking intermittently across the screen are obvious nods to the 60s-flashback Stone-d experience. B-actors Stephen Dorff and Frank Whaley show up in act three for random cameos, which only adds to the uncomfortable feelings of a film that injects pseudo-comedy into what would largely be deemed an American disaster flick. Hopefully someone persuaded the ego-driven director that, like casting Angelina Jolie as Colin Farrell’s mother in Alexander, not everything surreal is interesting or even intrinsic.

Ultimately, World Trade Center, like the tripped-out desert scenes in The Doors, will only amplify any residual terrorism fears lying dormant in your soul. If you’re still as masochistic as you were five years ago — watching looped footage of planes hitting buildings, towers tumbling, people jumping, and widows weeping — you may want to endure this over-long Clockwork Orange-esque movie. It will not help us defeat the enemy (whoever they are). It will not make you more patriotic. It won’t even make you cry. If anything, you’ll walk out underwhelmed, wishing you’d stayed at home watching the current crisis in Lebanon and Israel play itself out under Anderson Cooper’s determined drawl.

World Trade Center opens August 9th.

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Posted by regan on August 01st 2006 | 4 Comments

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